


30 Day BenKaru Challenge -- Day 27, Flowers

by tinynerdlet



Series: 30 Day BenKaru Challenge [27]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Flowers, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-10
Updated: 2016-09-10
Packaged: 2018-08-14 05:21:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8000086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinynerdlet/pseuds/tinynerdlet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It started with a pink rose.</p><p>The flower was left on the railing of Ben's porch with no note and no explanation. A few days later, another flower arrived. Then another. Although he welcomed them, he also wondered who was leaving them behind and what they meant. He was determined to find out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	30 Day BenKaru Challenge -- Day 27, Flowers

**Author's Note:**

> [See Story On Tumblr](http://spoopynerdlet.tumblr.com/post/150204614378/day-27-of-benkaru-flowers)

It started with a pink rose.

The single flower was placed in a slender, clear vase and left on the railing of Ben’s front porch. There was no note, no letter – nothing to indicate who left the floral piece at his home. Ben glanced around. Everything looked normal. Kids played, laughed, and stayed in their respective yards, adults walked along side walks in pairs, with dogs, or alone, and no one seemed to notice him.

Ben picked up the vase from the railing and took it inside. He gave it a home at the center of his kitchen table.

A yellow tulip showed up next.

The sunlit petals were settled barely above the lip of the narrow glass vase which seemed to sit on the same part of the rail. It had been only a few days since the rose arrived, yet Ben looked at it and then back at the world around him with the same curiosity. There were no answers this time around either.

He placed this vase on his bedside table, facing towards the window so the natural light could keep the petals from wilting away.

A red aster appeared three days later.

At first, Ben didn’t know what it was. But it sat poised in a similar glass vase, petals curled back and showing the black center with ease. Ben stared at it, observed the world longer than the first two times, and then took the flower and vase into his study. He set it on his desk. It wasn’t in the sun. For the moment, he didn’t care. He sat at his computer, pulled up the Internet and began searching. It took him ten minutes to figure out what the flower was.

A database of flowers described the aster as an enchanted flower. Although they were used to drive away evil spirits in the past, the aster stood for patience. And love.

Ben read the description a second time before thumbing through the database. First he looked up roses. Then tulips. The colors were specific to their meaning, but both were typically used to show affection. Ben knew flowers held that meaning, but for the sender, the placer, he hoped, to be that specific meant he cared enough to look. Or they already knew.

Ben’s eyes flicked over to the aster again. He pressed his lips together as he examined the petals. Then he opened Amazon and searched for security cameras.

A red carnation greeted him four days later in the same type of glass vase. Ben took it inside and immediately went to his computer.

Two days prior the security camera he ordered arrived. He’d set it up above the doorbell. It looked like a lamp, really, but showed his porch and his entire front yard in pretty good clarity, although the figures walking along the sidewalk were pixelated.

He rolled the footage back for the day. The flower sat there for three hours, almost. Then the figure who brought it approached. Ben paused the footage and slowly eased it back with small clicks of his mouse. It was a man. A slender, handsome man with a professional haircut and a nervous smile. Ben was sure he’d seen the man before but he couldn’t quite place way. It warranted a phone call to Nyota.

The conversation was brief and ended with an, “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” on Nyota’s end before she hung up. Ben took the time to start a pot of tea and print a still of the footage. Nyota arrived three minutes early. After polite chatter, Ben handed over the still. It took barely a second before Nyota said with a bright smile:

“Oh! That’s Hikaru Sulu. I’ve known him for years. He’s sweet.”

Nyota handed the picture back.

“He said something about a crush but he never said a name. If I thought it was you, I would have said something earlier.”

“How did he find out where I lived?”

“He lives down the block, in the faded yellow house.”

“The one with the vegetable garden out front?”

“That’s the one.” Nyota smiled. “He actually runs the flower shop on 6th street. The Arboretum. You could probably go in there and buy something for him as a gift, if you wanted to.”

Nyota spent the next hour telling Ben everything about Hikaru she knew. Ben listened and absorbed. The man seemed nice enough, but he couldn’t know that until he spoke to him. The more he learned, the more he wanted the chance. Though, he didn’t want to just knock on Hikaru’s door and demand his time. No, he thought of something better.

The next day, Ben walked into The Arboretum. The chime of a bell hanging next to the doorway gave him away, though Hikaru was nowhere in sight. At least not at first. Ben took the time to look at the flowers. He knew what he wanted to get, but he wanted to take in the whites and yellows and reds and blues, all with a touch of green climbing up the stems. All treated with such love.

“How can I help you?” a voice asked.

Ben looked up at the counter. Hikaru was standing there. Although there was a nice smile on his face, Ben could tell the man was nervous. He couldn’t seem to stand still.

“I was hoping to buy a sunflower,” Ben answered.

The exchange was pleasant enough. Hikaru hand was shaking when he took Ben’s card, but Ben probably wouldn’t have noticed the light tremor if he wasn’t hyper aware. He thanked Hikaru and excused himself, taking the flower with him.

He pulled his car in front of Hikaru’s house and shut it off. He walked to the porch and placed the sunflower on the railing. Then he edged a card underneath the stem. The word on it were hand written in blue ink and read:

 _You could give me one-hundred more,  
But they would not match your beauty_.

He left his name and phone number underneath.

Hikaru called him three hours later.


End file.
